Auxiliary grip for heavy duty bags

ABSTRACT

A heavy duty industrial plastic bag has a main handle at one end of the bag and is provided with an upper corner section that is used to create a spout to pour the contents of the bag therefrom. The invention provides for ease of pouring the contents from the bag through the spout by providing, at the lower portion of the side edge opposite the main handle and the spout corner section, an auxiliary handle or grip section. After the spout in the spout in the corner section has been formed the user can lift the bag via the main handle with one hand and then grasp the auxiliary grip with the other or free hand, thereafter easily tilting the bag to facilitate the pouring of the contents from the bag through the spout.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates in general to heavy duty plastic bags used for thetransport of, for example, particulate material, and more specificallyto an auxiliary grip or handle for such bags to facilitate the pouringor emptying of the contents from the bag.

BACKGROUND ART

Heavy duty plastic bags are widely used to package products such asfertilizers, water conditioning salts, pet food, lawn and garden soils,potting soil, limestone, cedar mulch, marble chips and other similarproducts. These bags, when filled, can be very heavy and bulky. They caneasily weigh 20 kg or more. To empty the bags, past practice has been tocut the bag open at one end, either transversely across the bag end ordiagonally across a corner, with a utility knife or scissors, and tolift the bag via the handle, if one was provided, with one hand whileplacing the other hand at the bottom of the bag. While lifting the bagusing both hands the user would then tilt the bag to pour the contentstherefrom. In the past, one Improvement has been to provide a tear-awaycorner section by way of a perforated tear line diagonally across thecorner thus eliminating the necessity of using a cutting tool to gainaccess to the bag interior. Typical easy-opening tear-away or cut-awayfeatures are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,229 (Warr); U.S. Pat. No.5,482,376 (Mosely et al) ; U.S. Pat. No. 5,636,925 (Smiley); and U.S.Pat. No. 6,402,379 (Albright). None of these patents addresses theproblems in actually lifting a heavy, flexible plastic bag filled withpourable material and lifting and tilting the bag for emptying thecontents. However, it is known to do this with rigid cans such as shownin U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,911,562, 4,928,860 and D504616, wherein thecontainers are injection molded.

The plastic bag is manufactured by extruding polyolefin through acircular die, typically used for blown film, or a flat die, typicallyused for a cast film, into a sheet or tubular plastic film. It can be asingle layer or a multiple layer film.

The plastic bag can be constructed using a single type or a combinationof polyolefins such as low density polyethylene, linear low densitypolyethylene, high density polyethylene, polypropylene, rubber modifiedhigh density polyethylene, ethyl vinyl alcohol, nylon or otherappropriate polyolefin. The typical thickness of the film materialranges from 3 mils to 10 mils.

The tubular film typically has a front wall, a back wall, and two edges.If the extrusion process is in a sheeting style then the Rim must befolded over and heat sealed into a tubular stock. The tubular film isthen cut into the desired bag lengths. One end of a bag length is thentransversely heat sealed, leaving one open end for filling purposes. Thetransverse heat seat is typically about ⅜″ away from the end of thefilm, leaving a skirt area for the attachment of an external rigid ormain handle.

Another embodiment of the bag will have two transverse heat seals, oneabout ⅜″ away and the other about 3″ away from the same end of the film.The area between the heat seals forms a handle area where a pre-cutpatch of film up to 12 mil thick is applied. Thereafter the film andpatch are die cut, forming a patch handle for the bag.

The easy-open tear-away corner feature is documented in the prior artpatents previously mentioned. That feature is a combination of a slit atthe top of the bag, extending to just above the transverse seal, and aperforated line, forming the tear line, through both the front and theback wail, extending to the adjacent edge of the bag. The perforatedline is usually at a top corner of the bag. Once it has been torn awaythere is an open corner which forms the pouring spout for the bag. Theperforated line can be in various shapes: an arcuate shape (U.S. Pat.No. 5,482,376); an arcuate transition shape (U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,379);or simply a diagonal line forming a triangle at the corner of the bag.In all cases, the material at the corner is meant to be tom completelyaway along the perforated line, leaving the open corner as the pouringspout.

The difficulty with the easy open feature bag is in tilting the filledbag easily and pouring out the contents. The filled bag is lifted up viathe main handle with one hand; the free hand then struggles to find aportion of the bag to grab onto to tilt the bag empty the contentstherefrom from the corner spout opening.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a feature of the present invention to provide a plastic bag of thetype adapted to pour its content from a corner spout with the ability tobe easily gripped and tilted to pour the bag contents from the bag.

According to the above feature, from a broad aspect, the presentinvention provides a heavy duty plastic bag for pourable material. Thebag comprises a front wall and a rear wall with the walls definingsealed opposed side edges. A seal provided at one end of the bag andextends transversely from the opposed side edges. A main carrying handleis provided at this one end of the bag adjacent the transverse seal andlocated generally centrally of the bag. A corner section adjacent themain carrying handle is adapted to form a pouring spout between the oneend of the bag and one of the side edges. An auxiliary grip sectionadjacent is provided adjacent the other of the side edges diametricallyopposite the corner section below about mid-length of the bag. Theauxiliary grip section is sealed from the interior of the bag andfacilitates the lifting, tilting and emptying of the bag.

According to a further broad aspect of the present invention there isprovided a method of forming a heavy-duty plastic bag for pourablematerial. The method comprises the steps of providing a plastic baghaving sealed opposed side edges, a sealed top edge with a main carryinghandle secured thereto. The bag has a corner section adjacent the maincarrying handle which is adapted to form a pouring spout between the oneof the opposed side edges and the top edge. An auxiliary grip is formedadjacent the other of the side edges below about mid-length of the bagand diametrically opposed to the corner section, by heat sealing thefront and rear walls together to define a grasping area.

The auxiliary grip or handle is an area that is sealed off from theInterior of the bag such that the contents of the bag are restrictedtherefrom. The auxiliary grip area is preferably formed by a heat seal,starting from the edge of the bag below mid-length thereof andprojecting downwardly spaced from the side edge to terminate back at theside edge or downwardly at the bottom edge to define an auxiliary griparea along the opposed side edge. The auxiliary grip area can be die cutto provide a gripping portion, as for example by two half-moon shapeddie cuts to be used as finger grips or handle hole to insert the hand.The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference tothe drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view of a plastic bag in accordance with the presentinvention, prior to filling;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the plastic bag after filling;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the filled bag;

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of the manner in which the bag willbe gripped and tilted for pouring; and

FIG. 5 is a front view of the plastic bag with a reinforced patchhandle.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates a plastic bag 10 formed with an auxiliary grip orhandle section in accordance with the present invention.

The plastic bag 10 is formed using a combination of polyolefin such aspolyethylene or polypropylene having a thickness range from 3 mils to 10mils. It can be of monolayer or multilayer construction. The bag 10 willhave overlaying walls 11 and 12 defining side edges 13 and 14. The topend edge 15 is closed by way of a transverse heat seal 16 which extendsfrom edge 13 to edge 14, approximately ⅜″ from the top edge 15, leavinga skirt area. An external rigid handle 24 can be attached in the centerof the bag at the skirt area either by heat sealing or by ultrasonicsealing as is well known in the art.

In one example of such plastic bag a tear-away spout section may beformed in a corner of the bag. In accordance with this known practice aslit 17 is provided above the transverse seal 16 and a line 18 ofperforations extends diagonally (or arcuately) from the slit 17 at thetransverse seal 16 downwardly toward the edge 14. In use, one will pullthe skirt material adjacent the slit 17 in the direction of the line 18of perforations. The perforations will give or separate, allowing theuser to tear the corner section away from the bag along the line 18, sothat the bag contents can be poured from the bag as shown in FIG. 4.

The auxiliary grip or handle section 25 of the present invention isfound at the lower or bottom corner of the bag, diagonally opposite theline 18 of perforations. There it will be seen that an arcuate heat seal19, of about a 2″ radius, extends inwards of the bag from the edge 13,starting about 6″ from the open end of the bag. A generally straightheat seal 20 extends from the lower end of the arcuate heat seal to theopen end of the bag, generally parallel to the edge 13. The heat sealcan be about ⅛″ to ¼″ wide. Preferably, two half-moon punch holes 21 and22 will be die cut in the grip area to be used as finger grips.

FIG. 2 shows the bag 10 after it has been filled with product and atransverse heat seal 23 has been applied across the lower end of thebag, sealing it completely. There will be no product within the grippingarea 26 of the auxiliary handle as it is isolated from the bag interiorand thus it will be readily accessible to the user, to be grasped andheld as the bag is tilted and the contents poured therefrom.

FIG. 2 also illustrates in phantom lines another example of theauxiliary handle 25′. As thereinshown, the auxiliary grip 25′ isdisposed adjacent the side edge 13 on the other side of the side edgehaving the dispensing spout and spaced above the bottom edge having theheat seal 23 and below mid-length of the bag. It may be provided with ahandle hole 40 or slit finger holes.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the filled bag illustrating how thegripping area 26 is very thin relative to the filled bag, being only thecombined thickness of the front and rear walls of the bag in that area.

FIG. 4 Illustrates how the filled bag 10 is held by the user with onehand 27 holding the main handle 24 and the other hand 28 holding theauxiliary grip 25 by way of the holes 21, 22. The bag contents are shownleaving the bag through the pouring spout created when the tear-awaycorner section was removed from the bag.

FIG. 5 shows the bag with a reinforced patch handle in place of theexternal handle 24 of the first embodiment. A patch 30 is heat sealed tothe bag material below the heat seal 16, as at 31, and a secondtransverse heat seal 29 extends the width of the bag about 3″ from thetop edge 15, passing over the patch 30 to help secure it to the bag sidewall. The bag is thus reinforced by the patch. A die cut 32 through thematerial of the bag side walls and the patch forms the main carryinghandle for the bag.

The drawings have illustrated a preferred form of the auxiliary grip orhandle 25. As alternative embodiments a different shape of die cut holecould be provided in place of the half-moon shaped holes, or it would bepossible to completely eliminate any die cut holes, leaving the user tograsp or squeeze the gripping area 26 itself. The gripping area 26 couldalso be reinforced with a patch film for additional strength. The patchfilm could be inserted into the tubular film prior to application of theheat seals 19, 20 or it could be applied externally using an adhesive.While the auxiliary grip or handle section of the present invention isintended primarily to aid the user when pouring contents from the bag itcould also be used along with the main handle when carrying the bag fromone location to another.

1. A heavy duty plastic bag for pourable material comprising: a frontwall and a rear wall, said walls defining sealed opposed side edges; aseal at one end of the bag, extending transversely from said opposedside edges; a main carrying handle at said one end of the bag adjacentsaid transverse seal and located generally centrally of the bag; acorner section adjacent said main carrying handle adapted to form apouring spout between said one end of the bag and one of said sideedges; and an auxiliary grip section adjacent the other of said sideedges diametrically opposite said corner section below about mid-lengthof said bag, said auxiliary grip section being sealed from the interiorof the bag and facilitating the lifting, tilting and emptying of thebag.
 2. The bag of claim 1 wherein a second seal extends transversely ofsaid bag parallel to and spaced from said first defined seal, said maincarrying handle being formed in aid bag between said first defined sealand said second seal.
 3. The bag of claim 1 wherein said auxiliary gripsection is defined by a seal extending from the other of said side edgesinwardly and downwardly spaced and then back to said other of said sideedges and in sealing engagement with said front and rear wall, and agripping opening in said auxiliary grip section.
 4. The bag of claim 1wherein said auxiliary grip section is defined by an arcuate sealextending from the other of said side edges and a generally straightseal extending from an end of said arcuate seal to the other end of saidbag, generally parallel to said other side edge, thereby defining agrasping area between said arcuate and generally straight seals and saidother side edge of said bag.
 5. The bag of claim 4 including a pair ofhalf-moon shaped holes die cut in said grasping area of said auxiliarygrip section to be used as finger grips.
 6. The bag of claim 3 whereinsaid gripping opening is a hand hole opening.
 7. The bag of claim 3including a reinforcing patch positioned within said bag at the locationof said auxiliary grip section.
 8. The bag of claim 3 including areinforcing patch adhesively adhered to said grasping area of saidauxiliary grip section.
 9. A method of forming a heavy duty plastic bagfor pourable material comprising the steps of; providing a plastic baghaving sealed opposed side edges, a sealed top edge with a main carryinghandle secured thereto, said bag having a corner section adjacent saidmain carrying handle adapted to form a pouring spout between said one ofsaid opposed side edges and said top edge; and forming an auxiliary gripadjacent the other of said side edges below about mid-length of the bagand diametrically opposed to said corner section, by heat sealing saidfront and rear walls together to define a grasping area.
 10. The methodof claim 9 including the step of die cutting said grasping area tocreate passage means for hand gripping.
 11. The method of claim 10wherein said passage means is constituted by one of a pair of half-moonshaped fingers receiving cut-outs and a hand hole cut-out.
 12. Themethod of claim 9 wherein said grasping area is defined by forming afirst arcuate heat seal extending inwardly and downwardly from the otherof said side edges, and a second generally straight heat seal extendingfrom said arcuate heat seal downwardly to the second end of said baglength.
 13. The method of claim 12 including the step of filling the baglength from the second end thereof and then applying a heat sealtransversely of the bag length inwardly of said second end, such heatseal closing said bag length and Isolating said auxiliary grip from theinterior of the bag whereby no pourable material enters the auxiliarygrip.
 14. The method of claim 10 including the step of inserting areinforcing patch between said front and rear waifs at said graspingarea.
 15. The method of claim 10 including the step of adhesivelyadhering a reinforcing patch to said grasping area after the creationthereof.
 16. The method of claim 9 wherein there is further provided thesteps of: forming a line of perforations through said front and rearwalls at said corner section of the bag, said line of perforationsextending generally from said top edge downwardly to the adjacent one ofsaid side edges, said line of perforations defining a tear-away cornersection.